jivenene

Hi yall!


Musty smell inside, anyone have experience with this? It will never be a new car again (mainly because I don’t want to spend the $$ to buy new carpets from the dealer or shell out for upholstery shop, I got kids man!), so good cleaning and touch up are the options for now. I am afraid to use an off the shelf flowery or perfumy products from Home Depot, and it would probably get really annoying after a while, that’s why I was thinking the “new car smell” products.
What you guys think?

Hfreak

I think you should be kicking yourself for not taking the trip to see the car before dropping your $$$. Lesson learned so just start looking for restoration parts, many available but living outside NA can be expensive for shipping. Good luck man!

Chuck S

This is air freshener. You can hang one from the mirror and get the same effect. Does not eliminate the source of the odors, just the after-smell (for lack of a better word.) Smell will be back immediately until you clean the car completely. There's still something rotten in there.

-- Chuck

Chuck S

You're right -- give it a shot. Let us know. I'm not optimistic.

-- Chuck

Inspired

I've used this my cars and it has done a wonderful job of eradicating (not masking) any foul smells in the ventilation system. I would imagine it would be effective in your case as well.

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Inspired

No prob. Let me know how it goes.

HawkeyeGeoff

I've also had decent success with throwing a few boxes of baking soda in a car for a few days/weeks and it getting rid of quite a bit of the smells. Just top up, sealed.

InterHat

I'm guessing you used something like a little green machine for the carpets? Pre-treat the carpets for mold. Basically, pre-treat for any deep cleaning of upholstery. Get a spray bottle and spray the carpet then agitate it with a soft bristle brush. Let it sit for a few minutes and THEN use your extractor. Go back over it with just water to clean everything out.
A few options:
(Search for proper mixtures of each of these and test in an inconspicuous area)
Color safe bleach and water
White vinegar and water
Hydrogen peroxide and water

Commercial Products:
Folex

You can also try Bissel's commercial cleaner with febreeze stuff in your extractor. It's pretty decent.

If you take it to a professional, they'll likely run a commercial ozone generator in there after all the deep cleaning is done. You could do that yourself too since there seem to be a bunch of cheap ones on Amazon.